Page 6 of Lion Conquers All
“Send them home and give me their address. Let them know I’ll meet them at their house.”
“Yes, sir. Thank you.”
Aarav waited for the telltaledingof a message to come through. The magick—the technology—in this world was unlike anything he’d ever seen on Reylea.
At first it’d been quite overwhelming, but after going through training to be a deputy and the humans in the Tribe giving him what they called a “crash course” in “human stuff”, he felt quite comfortable with most of it.
He could “surf the net”, download files, answer emails, stream TV. He wasn’t the greatest with computers, but all he had to do was ask Patsy at the office or one of the humans, or former humans, in the Tribe.
They were always more than accommodating. And he caught on quick. As soon as someone showed him how to do something once, he could replicate it efficiently. Naomi called him a quick learner.
He typed the address into the map program in the car. The directions popped up. He knew exactly where the Roberts lived. He’d taken his time since being hired by the Mystery Sheriff’s Department to drive the entire town, even the outskirts on a regular basis. He was familiar with every part of the territory. The Tribe’s territory.
When and if anything happened, he would have the upper hand.
He would be prepared.
Always.
Thirty minutes puthim at the Roberts’ house. They lived outside of town on the south side. Beautiful country. Foothills of the Denali National Park.
Aarav pulled up and parked in front of their house. They were standing on the porch steps waiting. The husband was tall, short dark hair, dressed in jeans and a long sleeve thermal shirt. The wife was dressed nearly the same. Their house was much more impressive.
The enormous farmhouse sprawled on their acreage. There was a large horse barn to the right of the house and a pool peeking out from behind the home. He wondered why the boys in town hadn’t picked this house to camp out at instead of the Tragher’s.
He checked his phone again before he climbed out of the squad car, Patsy had kindly texted over their names too—Calvin and Sarah Roberts. The son’s name was Sam.
“Sir. Ma’am. I’m Deputy Li’Rham.”
“Please come in,” the male said, gesturing for him to enter. “Sam’s never done this before. And normally he always has his phone. The cameras on the house were turned off. So he did that before he left.”
Aarav cataloged what they were telling him. “No sign of any forced entry? Doors? Windows?”
“No. I personally checked every single one. Then I checked the alarm system. The last time a door was opened and closed was two days ago at 4:23am.” Calvin’s tone sounded worried, but also calculated and precise. This was a man that didn’t miss details.
“Your system tracks all of that?”
“Yes. Even if it’s been disarmed, it still monitors all activity and logs it. But Sam turned the cameras off. Which is so unlike him.” The man shrugged his shoulders, defeat and confusion darkening his expression.
Aarav turned to the wife. “Mrs. Roberts have you noticed anything missing or out of place? Anything that made you stop and pause?” In his experience, most females tended to notice small details out of place in their home faster than the males.
“I—well—“ He heard the panic in her words. Her husband was attacking the situation methodically, but her instincts as a mother were something that also needed to be taken into account.
“Would you mind walking me through your home? Through Sam’s room or anywhere he spent a lot of time?”
She complied immediately, heading deeper into the house.
Aarav took a deep breath, focusing on the scents in the house. A second male did live in the house, but it was faint. The boy definitely had been gone a couple of days.
Sarah led them to a large room with couches and two TVs and wall-to-wall shelves of sports memorabilia. “He played his games in here, but nothing looks out of place or missing. His consoles are still plugged in. Even the more portable Switch is still on its dock.”
Aarav walked through the room. The boy’s scent was stronger, but still stale. “It’s good there’s no sign of disturbance. It means he likely went wherever he is of his own free will.”
The mother took a slightly deeper breath, but went right back to chewing on her bottom lip. The husband stood behind her and put his hands on her shoulders. She let the male comfort her for only a few seconds before moving again.
“His room is upstairs.” She left the media room and Aarav trailed behind the husband.
“You really think he went somewhere? Just left?”
